1

We

is in flux. The phenomena change with every step you take, and with every hour you continue West-the North differs from the South; and all your observations. The East differs from the are different to-day from what they were yesterday, or will be to-morrow. You have to daguerrotype a scene that is at once a moving panorama and dissolving view."-Letters, 192.

practices may be exposed and rebuked more he commenced his tour through the South, effectually by the condemnation that arises while now and then he winds up a paragraph after inquiry than by the flippant sarcasm with a figure so concise and apposite, that that originates in a wounded self-esteem. the reader is startled into admiration. Bot authors approach the Republic with a question whether the progress of America just appreciation of her worth,-both give has ever been better hit off than in the folher credit for what she has done,-both are lowing passage:willing to recognise whatever she contains of great, good, useful, or true, and both. "When I attribute superficiality to American arrive at an unmitigated, absolute, and total civilization, the charge does not apply equally to condemnation of her slave system. With all parts of the Union; and its applicability to a clear and rapid style, Mr. Stirling's letters any part varies from day to day. This qualifica combine the rarer element of proportion. American affairs. It is this varying aspect of the tion, indeed, should modify every judgment on He does not wish to dwell on the cruelties social phenomena of America that makes it so of the slave system, nor on the crimes it intensely difficult to form an accurate estimate of generates. He does not find an "Arrow- her progress. Everything varies, and everything smith" tragedy in every railway train, nor a Legree in every plantation. But he finds enough of truth to make romance unnecessary, and setting the truth into a well-proportioned composition, which portrays the social aspect and countenance of the States, he brings out the cancerous blemishes of slavery, and shows how they disfigure the features that should have beamed with the We do not profess to give even the slighthealth of freedom. Slavery, according to est summary of Mr. Stirling's Letters, beMr. Stirling, is not a pathological prepara- cause they are certain to be read universally tion to be studied in a museum of horrors, by all who take an interest in the subject. but a cancer on the brow of freedon. He He has given us a work that will enlighten draws it as it stands, not bottled up in cases Britain and produce a most powerful imand instances, but as it stands upon the pression on the States-a work full of faith, brow of life-shows how it contrasts with hope, and charity, good taste and discrimivitality, and how, unless handed over to nation. We wish rather to devote our resharp excision, it must spread its malignant maining space to the influences that are in fibre until the whole tissues of society being operation for the emancipation of the slave, invaded fall into the hideousness of corrup- and, in so doing, we shall weave in a portion tion. He shows how it ramifies through of Mr. Stirling's materials. We must say the various classes of society, and how in- a few words, however, on Mr. Chambers' jurious it is to all-how it degrades the volume, which, as its title indicates, is deSouth, and robs the North of its integrity-voted more exclusively to the treatment of how its nature is at all times vile, and its the slave question. Mr. Chambers gives us influence every where destructive. Such is the pathology of the slave question-its hisa summary of the convictions of an observer tory (since the Revolution)—its nature—its who does not pretend to devote more atten- influence on the body politic-its economy, tion to slavery than exactly as much as and its probable termination. His history slavery demanded at his hands while draw- is excellent, his facts well selected, and his ing the portrait of the States through which integrity beyond question, yet we scarcely he travelled. We should do injustice to incline to the belief that Mr. Chambers the "Letters," however, were we not to makes a just estimate of the course of slavemention that they contain a most ably ry, or of the process by which it is to be drawn delineation of the Union; for though finally abolished. As a book of facts, Amerithe author devotes his descriptions to the can Slavery and Colour, is thoroughly con. slave States, he does so with a perpetual scientious, but we question whether its instream of comparison running through his ferences and anticipations would not be more narrative, which proves incontestably the correct if they were more hopeful. We obsuperior success of the northern institutions. ject to all works, however well written, that He sketches rapidly, but often with the hap- treat any department of man's social history piest touches, and always with a freedom on the plan of a Newgate calendar. Crime that renders his work attractive. The shrewdest remarks are scattered about with seeming carelessness, as if the author had sharpened his pen in New England before

cannot be seen in its proper and most instructive light except when contrasted with rectitude, any more than disease can be understood unless when contrasted with

the name of William Chambers as affording the slightest pretext in favour of slavery, no slave will hear of that name except as the name of a friend. And this, we presume, is one of the influences that work directly towards the abolition of the atrocious system

health. In a crime like slavery we can fall | same. But he has given us more. He back with almost unlimited confidence on pronounces indignant judgment, washes his the historic teaching of past time. We can hands from all possible contamination, and see how slavery has perished out of the most tells America that if she will not root out advanced nations of the earth, and feel the the curse she will have a revolution or an firmest assurance that it will also perish out insurrection. No slave-owner will quote of America with the advance of catholic civilization. We may even take analogous institutions and trace their fate. We can see in their history, that there was a period of growth, when the evil was becoming every day more and more gigantic, when it seemed laden with portentous disasters, and no man atrocious in reality, and in the eyes of could see the end. Yet we have only to look Europe, though not yet atrocious in the eyes a little further down the page of history, and of the Southern slave-holders, nor even in behold the evil is obliterated. It has fallen the eyes of Northern_traders. The more into decay, or has removed further outward the mind of impartial Europeans is brought to the edges of civilization. On the frontiers to bear on the question, the more must the of civilization we find not only the habits mind of America be brought to see that her but the crimes of past centuries. Society, Negro-slavery is the miserable accident of in fact, flows like the sea with the turbid a locality, a moral swamp and fever-breedwave always in front, only to be followed ing pestilential marsh that must be drained by the clear water when the turmoil of ad- of its waters of iniquity, before the air can vance has ceased. be purified for the use of honest men. And here we must note, as Mr. Chambers America will see reflected in European well observes, that the question is no longer opinion the coming doom of the accursed one of Negro slavery. The old argument, evil, and will be ashamed of the foul blot that Negroes are an inferior race, and ought that makes Europe point the finger of scorn therefore to be slaves, has fallen to pieces, at all her professions of liberty. What can partly from the circumstance that the col-America dare to say to Italy, when the oured Americans have shown themselves clank of the chain in the Italian dungeon is capable of education, and partly because they have received so large an admixture of white blood, that the argument bears a contradiction on the face of it. The doctrine now is, that slavery in itself, whether black or white, is a good and proper thing, and a wise and legitimate institution. "We do not adopt the theory that Ham was the ancestor of the Negro race," says Mr. Fitzhugh, a southern writer, quoted by Mr. Chambers; "Slavery, black or white, is right and necessary." The argument is beginning to move, and the institution must move also, .although not exactly in the same direction. The advocates of slavery are searching for a new line of defence, and thereby beginning to acknowledge the weakness of their cause. But they have leapt from the argumentative frying-pan into the argumentative fire; and this new doctrine of a universal white slavery, is only one of the pangs and throes that betoken dissolution.

answered by the echoing shriek in the Southern slave plantation? What can America dare to say to Poland or Hungary, when the knout sounds the key note of brutality, and the slave whip takes up the infernal theme, and draws blood from the American born as fiercely and as fiend-like? What can America dare say to any down-trodden nation, when millions of her own people writhe hopelessly in the agony of bondage? The South may bluster for a time, but the freemen of the North cannot continue to live on in an atmosphere of contempt.

Nor, indeed, is it necessary that the United States should much longer endure the sarcasms of Europe, for there are causes at work which must lead to the emancipation of the slave. The fact of emancipation we regard as an indubitable certainty. It will come as a matter of course with the advancing tide of civilization, and the specific causes, each of which would entail its But while Mr. Chambers takes a view of overthrow in a longer or shorter period, can the case scarcely, as we think, sufficiently be pointed out. It might even be possible hopeful, though, after all, his view may prove to conjecture the duration of slavery were to be correct, he does what is more valuable. the causes to work separately; but when He throws the whole weight of his moral many causes work together in the same judgment against the American slave-system. given direction, and react upon each other, From Mr. Chambers we expected modera- we cannot know how soon emancipation tion, impartiality, and an unbiassed estimate might take place. In four or five States it of the system. America would expect the might arrive to-morrow. But if even four D-17

VOL. XXVII.

We give Mr. Chambers' conclusion:

"Slavery, we repeat, is seemingly destined to push far beyond its present limits. Is no check practicable?

"The Constitution-it can do nothing. "The Republicans they possess little political power, and, besides, they propose to act solely through the Constitution.

"The North-the majority of its representatives faithless; confidence in politicians gone.

States-Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and such a wide signification as to include all Missouri-were to pronounce for freedom, possible elements-Christianity and educathe present balance of parties would be so tion as well as dollars and danger. We changed, that it would be impossible to pre- hope, and indeed expect, that the good sense dict the result. The Federal Government of the States will discover some other termight then venture to take the whole sub- mination than revolution or insurrection. But ject into its own hands, and there can we cannot suppose that slavery in the Southscarcely be a doubt that the first time the ern States will gradually die away, merely Federal Government fairly approaches this because it is unprofitable, or that it can be one great master evil of the American abolished without violent agitation and the organization, it will be for the sole purpose application of, perhaps, very strong "politiof effecting the destruction of slavery-by cal nostrums." It might die out of the a process longer or shorter, as the case may North, because the North was peopled with be supposed to require. yeomen who were themselves willing to labour, and to whom slavery was an encumbrance and a nuisance, as well as a degradation. But it cannot die out of the plantation districts in a similar manner or from a similar cause. Labour has there become traditionally dishonourable, and the whites would on no account encounter the drudgery of the fields. The political pressure of the North must come into play; and if the planters saw that the North was really seriouswhich it has not yet been, or is only beginning to be-they would feel the necessity of capitulation, to escape what to them would be a greater evil-Separation. There is a vast substratum of power in the North that has never been brought into action, namely, the power of the yeoman proprietors, the of the British islands. If these men were strongest body of freemen in the world out fairly roused, their voice would startle the Union from end to end, and the slippery politicians, who have been playing fast and "To be quite Plain-there appear, at least on loose with slavery, would quail when they the surface, to be but two expedients by which heard the manly voice of Anglo-Saxon this fearfully embarrassed question is to be solved freemen pithily, but unmistakeably, declar-Revolution, Insurrection—both to be earnestly ing that the name of slavery should no deprecated. . ."-P. 179. One trembles at the fatal alternative--Revo- longer be branded on the reputation of their lution-Insurrection. Can insurrection be avoid-free country. Yet these men have not taken ed either way? Revolution would produce insurrection. Successful insurrection would be followed by revolution, for we can scarcely expect that the North would remain in union with a nation of blacks."--P. 181.

"The Anti-slavery Societies-a scattered body, with unfashionable views and no political weight.

Enlightened Opinion-suppressed by mob, violence, and outvoted, the less opulent and more numerous classes being democrats and supporters of the slave power.

"The South-resolute in maintaining its institutions, and master of the situation.

"Patience the next decennial census will add to the number of members in Congress from the Free States; the Free States will be increased in number by Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon, and Washington..

."-P. 177.

And now for Mr. Stirling's conclusion :—

I put no faith in political or philanthropic nostrums. If the South is to be regenerated, it must be by economical influences. Slavery will be abolished now as heretofore, simply because slavery is unprofitable. An unworthy motive some may say. True; but it is the way of God to bring good out of evil, turning even our unworthy motives to His own good ends."-P. 302.

We would fain hope that Mr. Chambers has taken too dark a view of the alternatives. Mr. Stirling's conclusion we regard as too hastily expressed, unless the terms "econo nical" and "unprofitable are taken in

their side. They scarcely even vote at elections. In the State of New York, there are 300,000 electors (about a third of all the electors of England) who do not use their franchise, and in Massachusetts, nearly twothirds of the electors stay away from the polls.

The causes at work for the abolition of American slavery, we are inclined to enumerate as follows:

First, Christian civilization. Second, The education and social elevation of the coloured American. Third, The moral aversion of the Northern States to the system. Fourth, The public opinion of Europe. Fifth, The commercial as distinguished from the plantation and agricultural period of society. And, Sixth, The proven inferiority of the slave system to the free system.

We shall take these causes of abolition

P.C'nt P.C'nt P.C'nt Doll'rs Doll'rs Bush's Bush's Doll'rs Miles. Miles. P.C'nt P.C'nt P. Cent. P. Cent.
21.91 9.71 14.72 19.00
.77
12.4 31.1 105.85 274 1000 2.40 6.87
11.35 6.59 10.00 6.00 .86 9.8 19.6 65.67 116 500 8.37 9.19

Stirling, 338. Compiled from De Bow's Compendium of the Census, and the Treasury Report of 1853.

tion of a system doubly free. In the first of the three selected years, our Slave Colonies (West Indies and Mauritius) furnished for home consumption, only 178,000 tons of sugar and molastheses; in the second, 180,026; in the third, 211,631. Thus the free produce, instead of dwindling away in obedience to prediction, has increased about 19 per cent."-Chambers, p. 160, from Anti-Slavery Advocate.

thirds or three-fourths of the commercial business | tive of a new society, that has not yet been of the south are carried on by northern men, or moulded into form-exactly as we tolerate foreigners. At present these men hold their a Californian with a revolver in his belt, alpeace-they bide their time. But many of them hate the system they are forced to endure."-P. though the European gentleman has given up the habitual use of arms. America feels not merely the sarcasms of British writers,

821.

Hear, again, the American correspondent but far more intensely she feels the moral

of the "Times:"

weight of British consistency and political rectitude. She feels beaten, not by the "The soil of Missouri, its climate, and its enterprise of Britain, but by the honesty of productions, are as much adapted to free as to Britain. She feels robbed of her place in slave labour. Hemp, tobacco, and Indian corn, the world's estimation, because there is are its staple agricultural products, but its com- another country that bears a free flag, and merce and its manufactures promise to be of carries it fearlessly before all-before high greater value than its agriculture. St. Louis, the and low, rich and poor, bond or free-a depôt of the former, is near the junction of the Missouri and Mississippi, with an inland naviga- flag which her very slaves are taught to tion of thousands of miles in every direction, with reverence in their childhood-a flag that is great accumulated wealth, a large tonnage, and not draggled one day in the blood of promises to become the great city of the interior Negroes, and next day flaunted in the face of this country. The mountains of Missouri are of foes-but a flag that covers every man, full of mineral wealth, and want only to be struck by the hand of well-directed industry, to yield a stream of wealth. The population of the eastern part of the State is young, and largely from the Free States. It is easy to see that all these causes might bring about in Missouri a feeling in favour of emancipation not shared by the other frontier States."-(Times, Aug. 29, 1857.)

woman, and child born in the British dominions, and gives them the same right to the full protection of the British crown. She knows that whatever her strength, her population, or her territory, she can never attain to a similar estimation in the eyes of the world, until the curse of slavery is rooted out; and thus the opinion of Europe, and of the world, is perpetually disintegrating her slave system, perpetually exposing its rottenness and worthlessness, and perpetually passing a sentence of condemnation, from which no escape is possible, except by the surrender of her black institution, and by the coming over of America to the side of freedom.

Fourth, The moral aversion of the Northern States to the slave system.

Third, The public opinion of Europe. Perhaps the greatest achievement of civilization, is the triumph of catholic opinion. What is the catholic opinion of the civilized world? On some subjects we are compelled to answer, "The civilized world has not yet arrived at its conclusion"-with regard, for instance, to the mode of political government. But where it has done so, as in the case of piracy and slavery, we acknowledge that the catholic opinion must prevail- This feeling on the part of the inhabitants must be reduced from a form of opinion to of the Northern States is every day bean overt act, and from an overt act to an coming more widely diffused, and every day outward condition of society. Britain, deepening in intensity. The Fugitive Slave France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Spain, Law brought the reality of the system home Portugal, Italy, countries where slavery to the door of the North, and created a reonce prevailed, have given in their declara- vulsion which first rendered that law a total tion on the side of freedom. Even Russia failure and an impracticable absurdity, and is coming rapidly over to the common con- then began to express itself in "struggles viction, and Turkey is at least on the way. for Kansas," and other similar efforts. The All nations that join in the community of North is not yet alive to the full degradation civilization must necessarily abandon slav- of its own position, and, consequently, exery, or must at least expel it to colonies; ercises less weight than really belongs to it; and this common, habitual, effortless, but but every day the progress is towards more invincible influence, is bearing most power- decisive action; and, though the foolish fully on America. So long as they retain prejudice against colour complicates the inslavery, the States cannot be admitted on fluence which the North undoubtedly posterms of equality into the community of sesses, all the more recent proceedings of nations; and the Americans know and feel the Free States prove that the North is this fact with ever growing acuteness. The gradually tending to a European style of black stain is always present; and, until it thought, by which slavery must ultimately is removed, America knows that she can be condemned. Even while we write, it is not take her place at the council-table of announced that the State of Maine-the nations, except as the tolerated representa- northernmost State, and one that never had